SSS-Ranked Awakening: I Can Only Summon Mythical Beasts - Chapter 412: They Usually Do
Chapter 412: They Usually Do
“Well, I guess that’s all.” Damien turned to Arielle and she responded with a shrug.
The air around the ruined hideout still carried that faint, acrid taint of demonic essence.
Damien and Arielle were preparing to leave, each step heavier than the last, when Arielle’s staff caught against a faintly glowing rune carved into the floor near the central chamber.
She stopped. “Wait… this mark—”
Before Damien could stop her, the rune pulsed. A sudden thrum of energy rippled outward, invisible yet oppressive.
Woooong~
The walls shuddered. Dust rained from the fractured ceiling.
Damien’s eyes snapped wide. “Arielle—back!”
Craaaack!!
Too late. The ground beneath them split open as arrays hidden beneath the rubble flared to life, flooding the chamber with a crimson glow.
Shards of stone lifted into the air, floating unnaturally before fusing together into crude, humanoid figures. Their bodies were jagged rock and metal fragments bound by threads of crimson essence.
Constructs. Guardians left behind to ensure no one uncovered this place too easily.
Arielle staggered back, staff raised. “They set a failsafe…!”
The constructs’ hollow eyes ignited, twin coals of red, and with a guttural screech that sounded more beast than machine, they lunged forward.
Damien’s blade summoned from Luton’s (Universal Space) materialized in his hand with a flash, intercepting the first construct mid-leap.
Claaaang!!
The clash rang like steel on steel, the sheer force pushing him back a step.
“Tch… heavier than they look.”
Arielle muttered an incantation, unleashing a torrent of flame that engulfed two constructs in the back.
Boom! Boom!
They staggered but did not fall; the crimson threads binding them pulsed brighter, repairing cracks in their rocky frames.
Damien parried another strike and glanced at the glowing rune still etched into the ground. “They’re drawing from that array. Destroy it, and we cut their leash.”
“I’m on it!” Arielle darted toward the rune, but a construct intercepted her, its massive stone arm swinging down like a hammer. She barely managed to conjure a barrier in time, the impact sending a painful jolt through her arms.
Damien swore under his breath, his sword slicing through another construct’s chest. The pieces crumbled to the ground, only to knit themselves back together moments later.
“So they regenerate, too. Perfect.”
Arielle gritted her teeth. “Then buy me time!”
Damien smirked faintly. “Gladly.”
He surged forward, his blade dancing in sharp arcs that struck with brutal precision.
Each clash echoed like thunder, his strikes deliberately drawing the constructs’ attention. His aura pulsed with dominance, daring them to face him instead of Arielle.
She sprinted for the rune, her hands glowing as she wove together a disruption spell. The array flickered, resisting, but she pushed harder. Sweat beaded her forehead as the crimson glow fought back, threads of essence lashing at her skin like whips.
The constructs shrieked, abandoning Damien to swarm her.
“No you don’t.” Damien slammed his palm to the ground, essence flaring outward. A thin ripple of silver energy expanded in a circle around him, momentarily halting the constructs mid-step. His eyes hardened. Spatial lock.
He had bought her seconds. Nothing more.
Arielle bit down on her lip, forcing her will into the spell. Her staff pulsed, threads of her mana weaving into the rune like roots prying apart stone. The crimson glow sputtered, faltered…
Crack!
And then it shattered with a violent crack.
The constructs froze mid-motion, their crimson threads snapping like frayed cords. One by one, they collapsed into heaps of lifeless rubble.
Silence slammed down, broken only by Arielle’s ragged breathing. She staggered, knees threatening to buckle, but Damien caught her shoulder before she fell.
“You alright?” he asked, his tone calm though his blade was still in hand.
She nodded, though her voice was strained. “That… was no ordinary array. It resisted me like it was alive.”
Damien’s eyes narrowed as he sheathed his sword. “Not alive. Fed. Whoever built this hideout didn’t just prepare constructs—they tied them to a reservoir of demonic essence. That rune wasn’t just a failsafe. It was a seed.”
Arielle’s brows furrowed. “A seed?”
“Yes.” He crouched by the shattered array, brushing away the cracked lines. “A spell anchor. If someone had left it untouched, this place would’ve eventually rebuilt itself. Constructs, cages, experiments—everything.” He straightened, voice grim. “This wasn’t a one-time site. It was meant to sustain itself indefinitely.”
Her skin prickled with unease. “Meaning… there could be others.”
Damien didn’t answer immediately. He studied the broken fragments, then exhaled sharply. “Not could. There are. This is just one node in a larger network.”
Arielle stared at him, lips pressed thin. “We’ll never be able to track them all…”
“We don’t have to.” Damien’s gaze was steely. “We just need one lead that ties back to whoever’s pulling the strings. And I have a feeling this wasn’t meant to scare us off—it was meant to erase witnesses.”
Arielle’s jaw tightened. “They underestimated us.”
He smirked faintly at that. “They usually do.”
They stepped out of the hideout, the forest air sharp and cool compared to the choking corruption inside. Yet the silence around them felt heavier now, every shadow a potential threat.
Damien tilted his head toward the horizon. “We head back to Delwig. Ivaan needs to hear about this. And we’ll need Apnoch ready in case more of these nests are out there.”
Arielle nodded, though her eyes flicked back to the ruined hideout one last time. A chill ran down her spine. The thought of dozens of other sites like this—each hiding their own horrors—gnawed at her resolve.
Damien noticed but said nothing. Some truths were better left unspoken until they had answers.
As they mounted back onto their path toward Delwig, the faintest shimmer of crimson glowed deep beneath the rubble of the hideout, far below where either of them had searched. The shattered rune’s fragments twitched, threads of essence struggling faintly to reconnect.
The seed had not been destroyed completely.
And its masters would know someone had tampered with it.
Damien sensed this and grinned. He actually wanted them to know. Whoever they were, he wanted them to know they’d failed to erase what they’d planned to erase. Him.
